Judders
by bikelock28
Summary: Tenth Doctor missing moments and one-shots. "He's got a memorable face. Boyish, angular- handsome, if he does say so himself. Unusual (quirky, as his human friends might say) and noticeable. Not easily mistakable for someone else. Well, okay, perhaps the Doctor can see the resemblance between himself and the short bloke off that car programme, but that's about it."
1. Offside

**Hi everybody. Here's my new series of Tenth Doctor one-shots. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to send me prompts/ requests.**

 **First up, here's a missing moment from 2.05 _Rise Of The Cybermen._ This is after Mickey and Rose leave and the Doctor has to choose which one to run after. **

Offside

"Rose! Rose!" the Doctor screams, careering after her.

"He's my dad,"

"You can't, y-... _I told you to stay where you were!"_ he splutters.

"I was just-"

"I know what you were doing, _madam_ ," he snarls, "And you damn well shouldn't be doing it!"

"Don't call me madam!" she protests, insulted, "You're not my great-aunt!"

"I'm staying with you. Making sure you don't do anything you shouldn't,"

"What about Mickey?"

"Two hearts, unfortunately not two bodies," he mumbles, then rounds on her, "Did you two plan this? Splitting up so I'd have to let one of you go off on your own?"

"No,"

"You did, didn't you? I always say don't wander off, and-"

"And we always do. And we find something interesting, something helpful, something you would have missed,"

" _Or_ you get yourself lost, or kidnapped, or killed," he glowers.

"Never got myself killed," Rose points out.

"No, but you got yourself caught and drugged by droids. And that was just the last time," the Doctor shoots back waspishly.

"Blimey, someone got out on the wrong side of bed this morning,"

"You think I'm being grumpy? I told you not to do anything and you and Mickey-boy...conspire against me,"

"Conspire? Who are you, Stalin?"

"Rose, I don't tell you to do not not do things for the sake of being bossy. I tell you do to or not do things for your own good. I'm a Time Lord-"

"And sometimes that goes to your head,"

"No, it means that I have a responsibility to the Time Lords, to the laws of time and to the protection of reality and relativity. Not to mention my responsilibity to you and Mickey,"

"You're not our babysitter,"

"Really? Because you're the one acting like a child,"

"Well what if it was you?" she bursts out, "What if we are on the parallel world of your planet, Doctor? What would you do then?"

He blinks at her a moment, taken aback.

"You'd go and find them. Your...everyone you lost during the Time War,"

"Rose, don't," he says through his teeth.

"You would,"

"I wouldn't! The Time War is locked, okay? I _can't_ go back,"

"Doctor, he's my _dad._ He married Mum, they're happy like they should have been. I've got to see that. Just _see_ it, see them happy together,"

"Rose, we've got involved with your father's timeline before and look what happened then,"

"This Pete Tyler isn't my father though. That's what you keep telling me,"

He sighs, running a hand irritably through his hair. "Twenty-four hours. I am not leaving your side, d'you understand me?...Humans," he adds darkly under his breath.

They walk in silence for a few moments before he asks in the same cross tone, "Go on then, you might as well tell me: where's Mickey gone?"


	2. Tie

**The beginning of 3.01** ** _Smith & Jones._**

Tie

"Well it wasn't very clever running round outside, was it?" says the junior doctor, sounding both puzzled and disapproving,"

"Sorry?" he asks, confused by her tone and her words. Did he mishear her?

"On Chancellor Street, this morning. You came up to me and took your tie off," she replies, as if this is blindingly obvious.

 _Oh,_ he thinks, _strange._ "Really? What did I do that for?" the Doctor asks, sounding slightly more incredulous than he feels.

"I don't know, you just did," the junior doctor answers, more snappishly than a moment ago.

"Not me. I was here. I was in bed, you can ask the nurses," he insists. He likes nurses. The nurses are the TARDISes of the medical world; putting the hard work in, keeping an eye on things, keeping everybody running ship-shape, having a bizarre ability to make tea whenever needed- and being overshadowed by a Doctor. He'd been chatting with Aidan and Naomi this morning; great people, they were. Tip-top nurses, he can confirm. If there was a hospital guest-book, he'd be putting them down for excellent service.

"That's weird, cos it looked like you," the junior doctor continues, "Have you got a brother?" she asks, although she still sounds convinced that it _was_ him... _which means_ , the Doctor muses, _well, what if it_ was? He's got a memorable face. Boyish, angular- handsome, if he does say so himself. Unusual (quirky, as his human friends might say) and noticeable. Not easily mistakable for someone else. Well, okay, perhaps the Doctor _can_ see the resemblance between himself and the short bloke off that car programme, but that's about it. His face isn't a "one of those faces" faces. Which means that if this junior doctor _has_ seen him earlier this morning, she's going to be significant later today. His investigation is going to lead to something and chaos will ensue and this junior doctor- Jones, Mr Stoker just called her- is going to help him out. She's going to be _so_ important that he'll have to prove to her that he can travel in time. She's hardworking, ambitious and smart, obviously, to be in medical school. _Sharp_ too, to remember him from this morning and persist with her questions. Sharpness is more important than smartness, the Doctor's always believed.

He bats away the question about the brother (it's taken time, but he can mention his family in passing now without bursting into tears or clawing at walls), and Mr Stoker nags Jones to get a move on and check the Doctor's heartbeat. The Doctor shuffles a little so she can get to his chest. He'd like to claim that this is a test to see if Jones is smart and sharp and believes in the impossible enough to realise that he has two heartbeats- but, well, she's been _asked_ to check his stats, and he can't choose when his heartbeats are or aren't noticeable. Well, he'll pretend it's a test, and he'll see how she gets on.

Martha finds his first heart, beating away...but after a moment the Doctor sees a twist of befuddlement and disbelief colour her expression. _Yeah,_ thinks to himself, _you heard that right. That echo..._ and she moves her stethoscope across to the other side. _Yes!_ the Doctor cheers mentally, _Yes, she's mad enough to test._ And, when she hears his second heartbeat, pulsing away in there, she'd mad enough to believe it. And sensible, perceptive, trusting enough to just give him a flabbergasted look and not say anything to Mr Stoker or the other junior doctors. _Yup, she's gonna be a help today,_ the Doctor smirks to himself.

Junior doctor Jones continues to gape at him.

The Doctor winks.


	3. Kae

**Rose and Tentoo/10.5/The Human Doctor in the parallel universe, set during the final moments of** ** _The End Of Time Part 2._**

Kae

One minute he's chattering away to her and the next he's keeled over, clutching his chest and gasping.

"Doctor. Oh my God, Doctor, what's wrong?"

"Heart...my...heart," he chokes out.

"Oh my God," she says again, "What's happening, what do you need? Oh my God, is this a heart attack?"

"Ah, ah, it hurts Rose, it hurts!" he squeals. He's on his knees now, one arm clamped to his stomach, the other grasping his chest.

"Doctor, listen to me, we'll get help, we'll get a-"

"Ahhh!" he groans, grabbing his head, "Ah! Ow, ow-"

"I've got you, okay?" she blurts, putting her arms around him, which is a bit difficult when he's curled on the floor, "I'm here. What do you need, where does it hurt?"

"It hurts...all over," he wails, "I know what this is, This is- argh!- he's regenerating,"

"What?"

"The me. The Time Lord me- _uhhh_ -he's regenerat-uhh,"

"Shh. Shhh," Rose repeats, stroking his hair with one hand and rubbing his back with the other, "Doctor, it's alright. It's okay. I'm here, I promise,"

He contorts himself further, curling into a foetal position while continuing to writhe and grunt in pain. Rose's hand slithers to his heartbeat and she touches it gently, drumming her fingers very lightly on his chest. She tries to move his head into her lap, but he stiffens and squeezes himself tighter into a ball, shaking- and then, very suddenly, he stops, gasps, and rolls onto his back. He breathes heavily for a few long moments and Rose, startled, watches in confusion.

"It's over," the Doctor breathes after several seconds of panting, "It's done."

* * *

Lying in bed that night. Her head on his chest as they both stare up at the ceiling, hands intertwined.

"Who do you think he is now?" she asks, knowing it is stupid.

"I dunno," he breathes.

"Can you tell?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've regenerated. You know what it's like- can you tell whose coming next?"

"Rose. What were the first words I said to you?"

"Like I remember. I was a bit busy wondering why your head had just exploded,"

"I said 'new teeth', I said 'that's weird', I said 'Barcelona',"

"So?"

"So I didn't know. It happens, you can't control it, you can't say, 'Ooh, I quite like my eyes this time, can I keep them the same, please?'".

"You asked me if you were ginger," she says, smiling at the memory.

"Exactly. If I could choose I'd have been ginger for the last five-hundred years,"

"I thought you said the Master chose not to regenerate?"

"Yeah. Yeah, he did," the Doctor nods sadly, "You have to try extremely hard for that though. You have to really...hate,"

Rose tries to look round at him, "I'm sorry,"

"Yeah," he murmurs flatly, distantly.

"And I'm sorry you've- he's- regenerated,"

"The man I am is somebody else," he mumbles, "What does that make me?"

Rose suspects that it's a rhetorical question but she answers anyway, with the answer is took her some time to get completely accustomed to, but now she believes it with all her heart. "The Doctor,"

"There's no one left now," the Doctor continues, and Rose isn't sure if he's listening to her, "No Master, no Doctor the same as me. I'm the only one left,"

"You've got me,"

"Hmm," he mutters.

"Doctor,"

"Yeah?"

"I said you've got me,"

"That's the thing, though. _He_ hasn't,"

"He'll have somebody. You found Martha and Donna and whatsername on the Titanic,"

"Astrid. Astrid Peth,"

"He'll have some pretty girl by his side, you know you always do".

"Don't I just," the Doctor says, grinning at her faintly. Rose kisses his hand. She's been careful around him today because he seemed in such intense physical pain earlier and because she feels so terribly sorry for him. Rose once had a friend who'd had twin cousins, one of whom had died in an accident when they were seven. She guesses that the Doctor must be feeling a little like that- except his doppelganger is an alien in a different universe.

Rose had stocked up on bananas and been pouring cups of tea and reading crossword clues to him all evening, being far more kind and patient with him than usual. A couple of hours ago she'd left him tinkering with the kettle briefly, and snuck away to cry. Cry for the Time Lord, the man she fell in love with, the man who is a different man now. Rose knows that there's a logical argument as to why she should feel _better-_ now her Time Lord Doctor's regenerated she can stop wondering about him, worrying about him, missing him. It should give her more focus on her life and her Doctor here. But it doesn't feel like that- the Doctor's still out there, and Rose is going to wonder and worry about him no matter what face he has. It's the worst-case scenario, really- _her_ Doctor is gone, but _the_ Doctor is still out there, having adventures she's missing and getting into danger she can't save him from.

Eventually, Rose had cleared herself up and went back to the kitchen- where she found the Doctor crying too, head in hands, the kettle discarded on the kitchen table. "Oh, come here," she'd breathed, wrapping her arms round his neck so she could stroke his hair while he sobbed into her shoulder. That had set Rose off crying again, and they'd held each other for a while, not talking, just letting the tears fall. And then the Doctor had put the kettle on.

"Is it scary? Regenerating?" Rose asks, back in bed. They're both calmer now, though she isn't sure how the night will go.

"It's terrifying," answers the Doctor, "It hurts. You know the feeling when you know you're going to fall but you can't do anything about it?"

"Mmm,"

"It feels like that at first. 'Oh, fiddlesticks, I need to regenerate'. You kick yourself, even if you knew it was going to happen. And then- you've seen it, Rose- your kidneys start going, your stomach, your lungs hurt. You start glowing and you're trying to hold on, think of some witty last words. And then it starts properly and it's...it hurts. It really hurts. Your body and your head's full of...I don't know. Pain,"

Rose strokes his arm tenderly and says, "You'd better have thought of some witty last words,"

"Yeah, he'd better". When they talk about the Time Lord Doctor they both still flick between pronouns.

"Someone who talks as much as you shouldn't have his last words be 'Has anyone got a phone charger?' or "Two sugars please'".

"Someone as funny as me, you mean," he corrects her, smiling.

"And then whichever pretty girl he's with will have a nightmare fixing him up. Like that Christmas, remember? Well, I suppose you don't," Rose notes.

"Might not be a pretty girl. Might be an old man.

"Doctor. Martha, Donna, Titanic girl-"

"-Astrid-"

"Christina DeSouza. Face it- he's a bloke, he has a weakness for pretty girls,"

"No, I have a respect and a friendly interest in sharp, brave, compassionate, resourceful humans,"

"Is that what this is, a friendly interest?" Rose smirks, glancing down at their entangled limbs, their bed, their room, their shared life.

The Doctor responds with a cocked head which means 'Well...'.

There's a long pause which Rose hopes means that he's cheered up a bit. She keeps stroking his arm gently and listening to his breathing. After a while, he says in a pained voice, "Regeneration. It's like dying,"

Rose presses a kiss to his shoulder. "Isn't it the opposite of dying?"

"Knowing that everything you are is going to disappear and not having a clue what is going to come next?" the Doctor says, "Rose, it's exactly like dying."

She doesn't know how to reply, so she kisses his hand again, then his hair.

"And the worst part," he says heavily, "Is that I- me, I mean, the human me, here now-" he clarifies quietly, "I'll never regenerate again".


	4. Judders

**Here's a missing moment from 2.05** ** _Rise Of The Cybermen,_** **in the bit before the credits when the TARDIS has landed in parallel London and Mickey has gone outside.**

Judders

"Hello? Can you hear me?" he asks the TARDIS, "Are you there?". No reply. He wasn't expecting one. He leans over to put his hands gently on the Time Rotar in the central of the control panel. The usual blue bobbing has gone- now it's empty and grey.

"If you can hear me, listen: I'll help you. Whatever's happened, wherever you are, I'll find you. Or I'll fix you, I'll rescue you, I'll...resuscitate you. We help each other, don't we, old girl? You and me, time and space, keeping each other out of trouble. Well, getting each other into trouble in the first place, eh?" he smirks. She's as bad as he is, always has been, always landing in the wrong place or wrong time, taking him to where the monsters and aliens are instead of to the quiet sightseeing spot he'd be intending to go to.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

"Whatever's out there,"- Mickey reckons it's modern London, but no spaceship crashes through the Time Vortex and arrives where two-thirds of its inhabitants left from. However it looks to Mickey, this isn't London 2006- "I will find a way to help you. 'Kay?"

He pauses, looking at the console, and then he steps forward, climbs onto it and leans close to press a kiss to the glass column. It feels hard and cool against his lips. The Doctor isn't sure if he's ever kissed her like that before so he can't say if it feels different.

"I promise," he whispers. Then he grabs his coat and heads outside.

 **Thank you for reading. Please check out my new Doctor Who story,** _ **Common-Time Waltz.**_ **Thanks.**


	5. Party 1

**End of 2.07** ** _The Idiot's Lantern._**

Party 1

One of the blokes is playing the piano, kids are running around ducking under tables and kicking tennis balls, mums are nattering. People are separate in the 50s, Rose notes. Divided by age, gender, class. _Well_ , says a Doctorish voice in her head, _is that really all that different to your life back in 2006?_ That's the thing about time travel- the past is the present for the people living there. They think they're modern, developed, free. It's only looking back that a society seems old-fashioned or restricted. Rose wonders what future generations will make of 2006 London. She should ask the Doctor is they can visit a library or sit in on a lecture in the future about early 21st century Britain.

Meanwhile the Doctor is, needless to say, busy chatting away to one of the Connelly's neighbours, grinning giddily.

"Yeah, very fresh. How long have you been able to get them here?"

"Couple of months. Bananas soon as well, they say,"

"Oh, bananas! I love a good banana! Always bring a banana to a party, that's what I always say. Don't I always say that, Rose?"

"Always does," she agrees, "Sorry, what are we talking about?"

"The orange juice. Made from fresh oranges, imagine that! Mr Harrison says that they've only been available here for a couple of months. Since rationing ended,"

"Oh, right," Rose nods, then adds to the Doctor is a whisper, "They had rationing for _eight years_ after the war?"

"In your time there's still nuclear radiation and seventy-year-olds scared of loud noises," he tells her, abruptly solemn, "War casts a long shadow, Rose,"

There's a pause for a moment while the Doctor gazes at nothing in particular, and then the pianist launches into _Maybe It's Because I'm A Londer._ There's a little cheer and everybody joins in, Rose burbling the words because honestly, who in the 21st century actually knows these songs properly? But it's sweet how much pride everyone seems to have as they sing along. Stuff like that, Rose reckons, isn't too different to her and her mates back home howling in delight whenever a Spice Girls song comes on in a club and joyously belting along. The songs and settings change but the sentiment doesn't.

The Doctor loves all this stuff, she notes, it's the sort of thing which makes him yelp _Humans! You're brilliant!_ And there he is, watch the crowd happily, a daft grin on his face.

 _"Maybe it's because you're an alien,"_ Rose sings to him, nudging his ribs, and he tips his head back as he laughs. When _Londoner_ comes to an end the pianist segues into _Knees Up Mother Brown_ and Rose groans.

"What's up with you?" the Doctor asks with an unimpressed frown.

"It's West Ham," Rose explains.

"So?"

"They sing this at West Ham. I'm Millwall. You sing this on my estate you're in big trouble,"

The Doctor rolls his eyes, although Rose ignores it. She's pretty sure that despite all his intelligence, experience and empathy, the Doctor doesn't understand football rivalries.

A couple of the party-goers start dosey-do-ing with each other, grabbing others to join in, and pretty soon everybody on the street is being spun around, giggling and knocking into each other. Rose is grabbed by a boy about Tommy's age, then passed on to a short balding bloke with suspenders and a comb-over, then onto a lady still wearing an apron, then onto an older man who hasn't spoken all afternoon but has twinkling green eyes. The pianist gets faster, and people start crashing into the tables and other pairs, breathless with excitement and energy. Rose still refuses to sing along, but the dancing is crazy fun.

After _Knees Up Mother Brown_ is over and has left everybody panting and halfway across to street to where they started, the pianist starts a slower song which Rose hasn't heard before. She glances round for the Doctor but he's nowhere to be seen. Rose shrugs; he'll be around somewhere and there's other people to talk to. She seems to have ended up in the part of the street where a lot of the kids are playing; kicking tennis balls and chasing each other.

"Blimey, look at that pink!" comes a child's voice. A little boy of about six is standing in front of her, pointing to Rose's skirt.

"What you lookin' at pink for? You a girl?" demands an older boy. Rose glances at them and notices for the first time that yes, everybody apart from her seems to be dressed in grey, beige, black, white, navy. There's a few flashes of red, but nobody wearing a skirt the colour of hers.

"No, _look,_ Tim," says the younger lad again.

"Yes, it's pink," the other one concedes with a shrug.

Rose beckons them. "Hello, you two,"

"'Ello," says the older boy confidently, "I'm Tim, this is James. Do you live on our street?"

"No. Visiting," Rose explains. James is still gawping at her clothes and earrings. Rose isn't especially a fan of kids, but one of the things she does like about them is their lack of tact. Adults can get standoffish when confronted with something new or surprising- children stare and ask questions. They cut straight to the point. They're like the Doctor (well, he's like them). "I'm Rose,"

"You earrings are nice," James says, "They're so long,"

"Sissy," Tim snarls.

"He's not a sissy," Rose defends, "He's right. These are special earrings, you can't get them anywhere round here,"

 _"See,"_ James retorts to Tim victoriously.

Thankfully, before they can start fighting the pianist ends the unknown slow song and announces, "Alright, another one to dance to, so grab yourselves a partner!"

Rose is about to ask James if he'd like to dance with her but by the time she turns back both boys have scurried off. There's now a girl charging over to Rose, clutching a doll.

"Dance with _me,"_ she demands, grabbing Rose with her cold and bony fingers. The pianist does a jazzy intro into a song which it takes Rose a few seconds to identify as _My Old Man Said Follow The Van._ The girls jerks her about and jumps up and down, adorably drunk on lemonade. She's nine or ten years old and dead skinny (that'll be the rationing) with dark blonde hair.

"What's your name?" Rose asks, laughing at the kid's enthusiasm.

"Joan!"

Rose almost snorts with laughter- this spritely, hyper little girl has a name as frumpy as _Joan._

"I'm nine and this is my first street party. Actually there was one on VE Day but I don't remember it. This is so exciting!" she gabbles.

"Yeah, it is. My name's Rose,"

"I've eaten _so much_ cake and sandwiches and ice-cream and drank ginger beer and we don't have to go to school and this is _so exciting!"_

"You'd better remember this, yeah Joan?"

"Of course! _You can't trust a special like the old time coppers when you can't find your way hooome,"_ she sings along.

"When you're grown-up, when you're an old lady, you can tell all your grandchildren about today. I feel like this Queen's gonna be around for a long time,"

"She's very pretty," Joan nods, "But I want to be a princess more than a queen,"

"How come?"

Joan shrugs. She drags Rose around for the remainder of the song before letting her go abruptly, out of breath.

"That was _fun,"_ she beams.

"Yeah it was,"

"I love dancing,"

"I can tell,"

"Joan! We're playing tea parties, come and join in," another kid calls over.

"That's Dolly. I'm going to play," Joan announces, "Bye,"

She runs off before Rose can reply. The kids here are fast- they dart, climb, jump with more speed and skill than anybody Rose knows from back home.

"May I have this dance?" asks a familiar voice in her ear. Rose grins even before she turns around to see the scrawny frame and scruffy suit and smirking face. She doesn't need to reply, just puts her hand in his and lets him draw her towards him. She slides her other hand up to his shoulder and he puts one of his on her back, moving automatically into a dance hold.

Rose would like to be closer to him, chest-to-chest waltzing one of the slower songs- but jigging about like this is fun, and silly, and what she loses in not being pressed against him she gains in being able to watch his face as he laughs. After he regenerated she thought this laugh was daft and manic, but now she's come to appreciate that it's utter joy. Happiness bottled- that's what that laugh is, and the elated face that goes with it.

The Doctor lets go of her to do some shuffles and high-kicks, and Rose busts out a couple of 2006 gangsta moves. They dosey-do violently fast, and then start messing about doing running man, Thriller arms, the Macarena, the Carlton dance. They're getting increasingly hysterical, suggesting"Ooh, I know, do this..." to one another.

She ends up back in his arms by the end of _Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy._ Momentarily, Rose remembers Reinette. Reinette danced with the Doctor. For hours, all night, he was drunk, he jumped through the mirror, he would have stayed with-

"Grip's a bit tight," the Doctor mutters, shaking his hand in Rose's.

"What? Oh, right. Sorry". Rose loosens her grip, blushing. _Bollocks,_ she cringed. Now it's either obvious that she's cross, or he'll think she's trying to hold his hand really hard. _Crap. Flipping Madam De bloody Pompadour again._

"You alright?" the Doctor asks gently.

"Yeah, fine. Just a bit _wuuurrhhh_ after everything". This isn't strictly true, although it _has_ only been a few hours since Rose was abducted by the Wire.

The Doctor stops dancing abruptly, put his hands on Rose's shoulders and looked intently into her eyes. "Wanna go?" he says gently.

God, if Rose wasn't feeling funny before, she certainly is now, with him touching her like this and those brown eyes locked on hers. One of his hands drifts to her neck to push a stray chunk of hair behind her shoulder.

"No. 'S fine," she mumbles, smiling. Smiling's her default when anybody touches her like this, most of all him.

"Sure? Want a quick lie down?" he pushes, concerned.

"I'm alright, promise. Let's get a lemonade,"

He nods and leads her over to one of the tables, linking his arm with hers. The piano is still tinkling away, people are singing, talking, laughing, connecting. Rose rests her head on the Doctor's shoulder.

 **Thank you for reading, please review to let me know what you thought. I've got a couple more Dr Who fics in progress-** ** _To Master One_** **which is a Master fic set during 10.12** ** _The Doctor Falls,_** **and** ** _A Tale Of Two Anthonys,_** **a very long 10.5 x Rose, 11 x River fic which I've been working on for ages.** **I'm proof-reading both at the moment so they should be** **posted very soon- keep your eyes peeled.**


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